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A Few Things I Dislike About the 10 Things Newsarama Dislikes About the New 52

So the fine folks over at Newsarama have posted an article in which ten of their writers and editors each list one thing they dislike about DC’s “New 52” series. There are mostly adequate concerns, particularly the mention that the New 52 is a bit scatterbrained as to what it wants to be. Some comics seem to be continuations of existing plotlines, while others are totally new. I get that. It can be a bit confusing. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it’s something that could have been thought-out better.

The problem that I have with this list is all the whingeing about the sex and violence. The Joker face-rip in “Detective Comics #1” was too violent. The sex in “Catwoman” was over-the-top. The comics should be more subtle, etc. I could not disagree with this more. I love the sex and violence. That kind of thing is entertaining to me. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good story, but what I *really* love about entertainment is that it *entertains* me. Sometimes I want a filet mignon, and sometimes I want reheated pizza.

Since arguments like this are completely matters of taste, there’s really no sense in calling their opinions “wrong”. They don’t like to see ultraviolence and nudity, and I do. But still. I really dig what DC is doing. “Catwoman” was terrible, though. But not because of all the sex.

7 Responses to A Few Things I Dislike About the 10 Things Newsarama Dislikes About the New 52

But when Marvel brought heavy sex & violence to its superheroes, it did so in a separate, mature audiences line (MAX), which ran alongside the mainstream titles. So if that was the sort of thing you liked, you could get it, but that didn't force kids, and people with different tastes, to either take it or do without.

I'm glad the New 52 is to your taste, and I'm all for you being able to get the kind of comics you want. Silencing all the other voices and denying all the other tastes, though, is not cool.

I don't know if it makes any difference, but *I* was certainly disappointed by all the sex in this series. It seemed really out of place, like they thought there was a bunch of 14 year boys (or 40 yr old virgins maybe) reading this and would think it was cool having random sex scenes put into a comic. It also seemed to sexualize a lot of the women in there, like sex was the only thing going for them.

Plus, I'm not sure I can forgive DC for treating Batman like Nightwing. Batman is not a man-ho, ok? (Yes, yes, Bruce Wayne is a total Man-Ho, but that's different.) He doesn't have sex with women while he's "on duty"… particularly not women like Catwoman who are known criminals. That's just not him. (Regardless of what my husband says, it just isn't!)

Plus, the fun thing with him and Catwoman was the sexual tension. They completely destroyed it by just throwing a sex scene at the beginning. Ugh. :(

totally agree with you nicole, one comment… the new 52 is like the new Image comics with Jim Lee. And not to sound too defensive, I am no writer or a prolific artist. But that doesn't mean I can't critiique a work if it's not done right (in my own point of view though).
It's like being in a fastfood restaurant, the reason you are in that establishment is to get a taste of the same menu that your memory relishes. And if that taste may somehow be a bit askew or off, you will inform management to have it rectified.
So, in my own opinion, the sales may be great, but it could be because of the hype (like extra cheeze on your cheesedog), but in the long run, it will leave a bad after taste and it will go the way some Image characters went (south). What? Some of the Image characters are already in DC?

Thing is, it's not just "a matter of taste" as the author states. Taste is a factor, but sex and violence immediately screams demographic. It's saying that their comics are no longer for kids… hopefully they spent a bunch of money researching this, but I know when I was a kid, parents bought a lot of comics for their children – not gonna happen now. It means that as kids are watching cartoons, they've got nothing to bridge the gap into comics.